At long last - a clear sky !

[John]

Thank goodness -  I've managed to actually get some observing in tonight. First time for a good fortnight

Not really trusting the forecast of clear skies from around 11:00 pm, I stuck the ED120 refractor out to cool in the greenhouse more out of hope than expectation. However "Clear Outside" got the forecast right and the clouds shifted aside revealing a nice moonless sky

I'd not really prepared any targets so I wandered around the southern and eastern sectors of the sky picking up some old favourites plus a few new ones. Here's what I got:

Cetus

M77 / Cetus A - galaxy 47-50 million LY’s distant. Magnitude 9. Quite bright condensed object close to

a foreground star. If you want a relatively easy to find but distant object to view then this is a decent one to pick at the moment. What I was seeing tonight was just the core of the galaxy - it's full extent is much larger !

84 Ceti - double star, mags 5.8 and 9.0, sep 4”, 113x to separate nicely. Fainter star seemed

orange ?

Taurus

M45 - open cluster, the Pleiades and what a sight they always are !

NGC 1657 - open cluster near Aldebaran and the Hyades. Large scattering of stars.

NGC 1746 - open cluster, another largish scattering.

M1 - supernova remnant, the Crab Nebula. Quite bright for the 120mm scope tonight. No filter

used initally. NBP filter later used. Not a massive impact on this object though, on this occasion.

NGC’s 1817 and 1807 - pair of elongated star clusters both in same 1 degree FoV. A sort of smaller, fainter version of the double cluster in some ways ?

Perseus

M34 - open cluster, large, bright and well populated. Visible in 30mm finder. 

Orion (1st decent session this season)

Rigel - easily split at 113x

M42 - glorious, simply glorious from 38x - 142x. My NBP filter bought out more extensive nebulosity on the opposite

side to the dark rift of the “fishes mouth” area.

M43 - close to M42. AKA “De Mairan’s Nebula” after it’s discoverer sometime before 1731.

Trapezium / Theta Orionis - 4 main stars dead easy. E & F visible faintly at 113x and 142x. 

Eta Orionis - double, sep 1.7”, mags 3.8 and 4.8. Split at 113x (just !) and 142x.

Sigma Orionis - quadruple star. All 4 components clear at around 80x and up.

Alnitak / Zeta Orionis - double star. Split at 113x and 142x. Can be a challenge if conditions are poor.

M78 - faint nebula with 2 mag 10 stars peering out of it !. NBP filter increased contrast a little but it still wasn't stunning by any means.

NGC 2175 / 2174 - small clusters and large area of faint nebulosity which is around the size of the full Moon. The nebulosity is known as “The Monkeys Head Nebula”. Needed averted vision and the NBP filter to pick up more than a hint of this extensive patch of nebulosity.

Gemini

Castor - split very nicely at 113x.

M35 - large and famous open cluster. 

NGC 2158 - small and much fainter cluster close (in line of sight terms) to M35 (same FoV). It’s much more ancient and further away than M35.

So mostly famillar stuff but some that I've not seen for many months. It's just so nice to spend some time at the eyepiece again

Oh, and the eyepieces I used were my star party set comprising a 24mm Maxvision 68 degree, a Celestron 8-24mm zoom and a TAL 6.3mm plossl. They all did a good job

[jetstream]

Congratulations for getting some clear skies John, very good report as usual Fishes mouth area... going to check out some images to see where you mean... It sounds like your NPB works well John.

[Paul73]

Clear sky! I'd forgotten what that looked like. Hazey high cloud here. Still got 90 fun minutes in.

First proper M42 of the year. Limited due to the haze, but still a joy none the less. And a big smoking meteor to end the session!

Not a classic. But great to get out.

Paul

[nightfisher]

Nice one John, sounds like you got a good session in

[cotterless45]

Snap ! Lovely night ,

Nick.

[Piero]

Very nice report and how many targets!

Glad you could go out last night! Hopefully tonight the sky will clear up a bit earlier.

[laudropb]

Glad to hear some are getting clear skies. Rained here for the last week. Thanks for a really nice report of a very productive session. I am jealous lol.

[John]

Congratulations for getting some clear skies John, very good report as usual Fishes mouth area... going to check out some images to see where you mean... It sounds like your NPB works well John.

I think the Fishes Mouth is an unofficial term for that dark rift that leads in towards the brighter parts of the nebula where the Trapezium cluster is. This sketch by some bloke called Messier in 1774 shows it nicely. I must have had better seeing than he did last night because M42 looked a little better with my 120mm refractor than his sketch

[kerrylewis]

I also trusted the forecasts and trundled out the Dob under cloudy skies. Got up around 2.00 and, sure enough, it was completely clear though not as dark and transparent as I had hoped. Tried out my new 40mm eyepiece and the Pleiades, Hyades  and Beehive all looked wonderful. Hint of nebulosity with M45 - or was it dew?

The galaxies M81and 82 looked good, Crab Nebula quite bright. I like to look at the wide field view first to see such objects in their setting, and then increase the magnification.

The Orion nebula looked wonderful - it's good to welcome this back. The 'wings' stretching out for quite a way even without a filter. Like others, I always find M78 a bit underwhelming  - just two headlights in a faint mist, but worth a look while in Orion. The Auriga clusters were very good. I was also pleased to find the Eskimo Nebula which then took the 3mm eyepiece although this was pushing things a bit.

Saw an interesting pair of satellites about a moon width apart travelling together in the N/NE.

Got up again for the morning planet show around 5.00. Venus a dazzling sight just past 50% phase -but not as bright as it was a few weeks ago. Mars still a red dot - looking forward to better views in the coming months.

Jupiter was glorious at first although seeing deteriorated as dawn approached. I did see the small shadow of Io and the moon itself approaching the disc. It's interesting, as the seeing varies, the shadow appears to come and go - occasionally snapping into 'focus' and then disappearing again. I gave up at this point as the dew got worse and bed beckoned, but an enjoyable night. 

[John]

Sounds a very satisfactory night Kerry

[rockystar]

I'm going to have to get rid of this pesky job. I managed to stay out from about 11 until 1am, then decided that I had better go to bed.

Orion standing upright in all its grandure is just an awesome site, and my first use of my UHC filter on the nebula took up about 1/4 of that time. I also ticked off the Eskimo nebula, first time I'd seen that - barlowed 7mm for me, but still just a fuzzy circle, good to see though.

The crab nebula, the first messier and I've still not seen it - next time, as that is sitting well within my viewing circle at that time.

At least I managed a couple of hours, as at 10:30 it was looking like an early night.